Australian warship HMAS Darwin has made another multimillion-dollar drug bust.
This time it was more than 400 kilograms of heroin from a smuggling vessel off the coast of Somalia.
The haul has an estimated street value of $132 million.
It follows an even bigger bust of more than a tonne of heroin found in a smuggling vessel off the coast of Kenya in April.
Darwin's captain Commander Terry Morrison said the seizure removed a major source of funding for terrorist and criminal networks, including al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Al-Shabaab.
A boarding party from Darwin discovered the 449 kilograms of heroin hidden in 20 bags aboard a motorised dhow vessel 40 nautical miles off the Somali coast on Tuesday.
The ship is deployed on patrol with the UK-led combined task force that is conducting counter-terrorism and security operations in the North Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.
Commander of Australian forces in the Middle East Major General Craig Orme said HMAS Darwin had made a considerable impact on the drug-smuggling networks operating in the Indian Ocean.
Seized drugs are destroyed by being tossed overboard. Crews of smuggling vessels are sent on their way.
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